Good Looking Trees and Shrubs Year Round

Looking for information regarding your trees and shrubs?  Here are some good tips on doing just that.

I manage a large retail gardening store and get hundreds of questions regarding trees and shrubs. It is not really hard to keep your plants looking good year round but I do have some very good tips on how this should be done.

Tree and Plant care during the hot summer months

We will start with the summer months. The hot sun rays will scorch and burn many new tender plants making them look bad and it seems no matter you do they still look burned and dry. So what is the solution? Up your watering. Increase your watering times if using a water sprinkler. Usually 5-10 minutes more each time will help. If you are watering by hand or paying some to do this make sure you apply at least 5-8 gallons of water per plant. This should be done almost on a daily basis for new plants and trees.

How often do we fertilize our trees and shrubs?

Many gardeners think “More fertilizer will help”. This is usually not true because fertilizer will sometimes burn the foliage of newly planted plants. It is important to fertilize during the summer months but only once in early summer and maybe again towards fall should suffice. Always use Ggood loamy composted soil will also help with water retention. Adding mulch on top of each plant will help keep weeds and also retain water moisture. And just like people older more established trees and plants can take extra fertilizer. They also require less watering, and this is usually about the third year or more after planting.

Fall gardening is a bit less challenging. Decrease your watering times to about twice per week maybe 20-30 minutes each time. The only exception is your new lawn. It should still be watered consistently throughout the fall months. You want to be sure of a good root system going into the winter months. Fall and spring weather are very similar and many plants will bloom again thinking it might be spring. The fall is a good time to winterize your lawn. Winterizer is a product and is sold in most nurseries it is a vitamin for the root system not a fertilizer. It is really hard to over do winterizer.

It is still important to water and check your trees and plants during this time. About twice per year should suffice. The one big exception are Magnolia trees these trees need watering about once or twice during the winter months. Without foliage you will be able to observe your deciduous trees for borers. Borers’ are small worms that will bore a hole in many trees including evergreens and softer type wood trees. Most holes will be about the size of BB pellet. Use a good systemic insecticide to kill borers’. Any good sized nursery should have this product in stock year round.

Spring time gardening. Almost all gardeners’ love this time of the year. Blooms and flowers should start appearing and new visual growth on evergreens and deciduous trees are noticeable. It is time to increase watering times about 20-30 minutes each time on a drip system. This is also a good time to check your drip and sprinkler systems. Be sure to check all drip lines and see if they are actually dripping water to your plants. Fertilize all plants and trees during this time. Any good all purpose fertilizer will work. There are many fertilizers that are specifically designed for fruit trees, evergreen trees, and or shrubs. Fertilizers high in zinc should be used for fruit and nut type trees. Fertilizers high in nitrogen are designed for evergreen trees and shrubs. Be sure to read the label of each and every fertilizer product for the correct usage.

Plants and trees are much like people. Take care of them, feed, water and always check for disease or insects. Very similar to people!

Paul Guzman